Everyday questions › Appearance and dress
Appearance and dress
Beards, hair, hijab and niqab, jewellery, tattoos and the line between religion and culture in how a Muslim looks.
- Do I have to grow a beard?
- Can a man wear a gold ring or an earring?
- Is the niqab required or a choice?
Example phrasings, not quotations. Each one runs a search.
Latest answers
145 segments in 69 recordings, newest first
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestIs the daytime ban on eating and intimacy in Ramadan stated in the Quran or inferred?
The daytime prohibition of eating and intimacy in Ramadan comes from 2:187 by mafhum al-mukhalafa, an adverse inference Mufti Abu Layth accepts but which is not the explicit reading, so some verses need the tradition's explanation; the guest says each reader is rewarded according to his understanding.
machine5 min 35 s1:50:43on YouTube
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestIf reason helps us understand the Quran, does the reasoning of earlier scholars matter too?
Both agree reason is essential to understanding revelation; Mufti Abu Layth adds that by the same logic the reasoning of the Prophet, the Companions and the scholars before us is a valuable reservoir, not his reason alone, and the guest demands the Prophet's own explanation.
machine2 min 56 s1:56:30on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
LatestIs it haram for men to wear earrings?
Early imams including Malik wore earrings as boys; Malik disliked golden earrings for boys because of the gold, not the earring.
machine4 min 57 s13:23on YouTube
13 Feb 2023video
Orthodoxy and power: adding to the checklist, ijma and cancel culture
Once creed became a checklist, those in power could keep adding to it, as with ijma; everyone acts from power, even when sincere.
machine7 min 07 s19:10on YouTube
13 Feb 2023video
Language embeds power: 'inconvenience' versus 'hardship' in tayammum
The words scholars choose, such as 'inconvenience' or 'hardship', already decide the ruling, embedding power even when used sincerely.
machine3 min 52 s26:17on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
LatestWhy did Abu Hanifa allow things like praying in Persian?
Abu Hanifa's legal stratagems, such as letting someone who knew no Arabic pray in Persian, were meant to create ease for new Muslims, not to change Islam, and Mufti Abu Layth says that spirit is needed today.
machine5 min 15 s17:01on YouTube
9 May 2021video
LatestWhy did scholars say a slave woman's awrah is the same as a man's?
Mufti Abu Layth says most scholars of the past legitimised the practice of slave girls out of pragmatism, realism and sex, and even presented it as a religious act. He contrasts this with music, which they were less keen to permit, and polygamy, which few manage today.
machine7 min 03 s0:38on YouTube
9 May 2021video
Did scholars let slave women uncover more than free women?
Mufti Abu Layth says the scholars dropped their concern for modesty when it came to slave women, and calls the claim that nobody would desire them nonsense. He thinks slave women probably wore working clothes, with arms and lower legs uncovered, rather than walking about topless.
machine4 min 58 s7:04on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is everything halal unless proven haram?
Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says things are halal by default and prohibiting is a heavy task, and teachers should say 'in my understanding' because they could be wrong.
machine2 min 37 s1:03:39on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is forex trading halal or haram?
Mufti Abu Layth refers the question to his earlier videos and says inherited fiqh is so out of date that much of it can no longer be applied.
machine2 min 06 s21:11on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why are some clerics so harsh in their rulings on women?
Mufti Abu Layth says harsh rulings from some clergy, especially towards women, come from sexual deprivation and a closed madrasa culture, and that love and a normal life soften people.
machine8 min 44 s1:12:51on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestWhat does Mufti Abu Layth think of France banning the hijab for girls under 18?
If France has banned headscarves for girls under 18, he says it is an abhorrent breach of basic rights that he strongly condemns. He also opposes pressuring girls to wear it: it should be their genuine choice.
machine7 min 20 s1:21:35on YouTube
10 Mar 2021video
Reply to Mufti Mangera on ear piercing: who defines normal and decent?
A played clip of Mufti Mangera allowing one or two ear piercings as 'normal' among decent people but not higher ones, which Mufti Abu Layth mocks for leaving undefined who decides what is normal.
machine3 min 40 s0:00on YouTube
10 Mar 2021video
Reply to Mufti Mangera: does the ban on muthla forbid piercing?
The clip cites the ban on muthla (mutilation) against piercing; Mufti Abu Layth explains that muthla means disfiguring bodies, especially of the dead, and mocks applying it to ear piercing.
machine3 min 57 s3:40on YouTube
5 Mar 2021video
Why did Imam Malik say nothing between spouses is haram and only pork is forbidden to eat?
Imam Malik held that nothing sexual between spouses is haram and that no meat is haram in itself except pig, and Mufti Abu Layth says such rulings defend the principle that only Allah declares things haram. Saying something is not haram is not the same as recommending it.
machine5 min 04 s3:59on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
A mufti's clip on ear piercing: 'decency', 'manipulation' and muthla
Mufti Abu Layth mocks a mufti's argument that piercing beyond the earlobe is abnormal and amounts to muthla, saying muthla means disfiguring a body, not piercing it.
machine7 min 45 s1:53:05on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What counts as khamr, and is a drink with a little alcohol haram?
Mufti Abu Layth says khamr in the Quran meant wine; other drinks were haram only when they intoxicated like it, which was Abu Hanifa's position.
machine6 min 09 s24:29on YouTube
2 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can men wear gold?
Men can wear gold, in Mufti Abu Layth's understanding; the Prophet discouraged it because Medina needed to stay on a war footing.
machine2 min 56 s16:35on YouTube
2 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
If the hijab has become sexualised, should scholars still push it?
Mufti Abu Layth argues that since the hijab is now widely sexualised, fatwas should not keep pushing it, though people may wear it as culture.
machine9 min 37 s1:20:04on YouTube
2 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How can God be timeless and still perceive time?
Linear time is our perspective, Mufti Abu Layth says, not necessarily how God sees events; he also says tattoos are not haram for men.
machine2 min2:48:56on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestIs growing a beard obligatory in the Hanafi school?
The guest says Hanafi principles act as a constitution before which everyone is equal, and that by them keeping the beard is mubah, not wajib as subcontinent scholars concluded.
machine5 min 45 s18:37on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
If the Prophet couldn't forbid what Allah allowed, how can scholars issue fatwas?
The verse rebukes the Prophet for forbidding himself something permissible to please others, not for legislating; things are permissible by default, so declaring something haram is a weighty step.
machine3 min 59 s41:12on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does a bald woman have to wear hijab?
Mufti Abu Layth gives no ruling: he jokes about the wording and muses on hair loss in women and men.
machine1 min 07 s24:30on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Will I go to hell for not shaving my pubic hair?
Nobody goes to hell for not shaving pubic hair, Mufti Abu Layth says; it is a matter of hygiene, which religion tied to reward and closeness to God.
machine3 min 34 s1:03:44on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Has the Salafi movement done more good or harm?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Salafi dawah revived interest in hadith and forced a re-evaluation, but its dislodging of the tradition did far more damage overall.
machine2 min 28 s32:40on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Has Islam become more polarised between puritans and liberals?
Yes, he says Islam is far more polarised today than historically, but he is optimistic it is a fever through which a more natural Islam can return.
machine4 min 10 s35:37on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Am I doing wrong if I follow a minority opinion?
No: the hadith is weak, and even its valid meaning is about the whole ummah agreeing, not about majorities, so following a minority view is not doom.
machine2 min 21 s1:38:29on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do you call yourself a Maliki?
Mufti Abu Layth calls himself Maliki because he follows the lens of the school of Medina: the Quran at the centre, Medinan practice, reason and the aims of the shari'ah.
machine5 min 05 s1:41:27on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does Islamic law say about the harms of social media?
Mufti Abu Layth agrees fiqh is out of sync with problems like social media's harms and needs updating.
machine1 min 17 s2:51:22on YouTube
5 Jan 2021video
Is the niqab required, and is it right to make women take it off?
The face veil has no basis in the Quran and Sunnah, being the opinion of some later scholars. Forcing a woman to remove it is still wrong; one may only advise.
machine6 min 31 s0:19on YouTube
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